259
TA 17 (3) pp. 259–279 Intellect Limited 2019
Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research
Volume 17 Number 3
© 2019 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. doi: https://doi.org/10.1386/tear_00020_1
KEYWORDS
narrative
data visualization
storytelling
design methods
visual narrative
case study
education method
interactive art
XIAOXU DONG
Roy Ascott Technoetic Arts Studio
Data visualization: A unique
storyteller
ABSTRACT
Science and technology have changed all aspects of our lives, including the mode of
narration, from traditional stories to data stories. Storytellers have been integrating
visualizations into their narratives. From the case studies of some artworks and our
students’ works to visualization research, we have found distinct genres of narra-
tive visualization and the education method for university students. We describe
the differences between these artworks, together with interactivity and information
transmission. Some small experiments and some examples of students’ works will be
shown to explore the visual narrative. We suggest new design strategies including
how to make invisible things visible.
INTRODUCTION
Storytelling is a simple and sophisticated form of art. Stories could inspire the
audience, and show them ideas that are difficult to comprehend or explain.
Converting data into visual content is a form of storytelling. Usually, the
importance of telling a good story during data processing is overlooked, and
people are not aware that data themselves are not effective if the story behind
them is not properly presented.
Narrative methods, visualized contents and techniques applied for
presenting have changed gradually with time. Recently, many artists have
incorporated more creativity and uniqueness into their narrative methods.
06_TA_17.3_Dong_259-279.indd 259 2/19/20 2:44 PM
Xiaoxu Dong
260 Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research
1. Traditional narrative
refers to the way of
recording with words,
videos, recordings, etc.
The development of hardware, software techenologies and richer internet
integration has made it possible to include more dynamic graphics and inter-
active experiences in artists’ works; therefore more versatile and interdiscipli-
nary narrative forms are developed.
The Economist explores the proliferation of digital data and notes that
visualization designers are ‘melding the skills of computer science, statistics,
artistic design and storytelling’.
This article expounds the changes of narrative methods and contents in
data visualization with the development of science and technology in the era
of big data. Ways of utilizing this knowledge should be taught to students in
order to help them become successful storytellers in data presentation.
THE CHANGE IN NARRATIVE METHODS AND CONTENT IN DATA
VISUALIZATION
Against the backdrop of the increasing popularity of visual forms and the
increasing number of data stories, there is no doubt that the storyteller some-
times encounters some obstacles in narrative. As all cultures have their unique
reading habits, it will greatly affect one’s understanding of data visualization,
for example, in a certain cultural environment, people are used to reading from
left to right, from top to bottom, So they also follow the invariable principles
when it comes to visual content. Moreover, there are other conventions: the
trend to the right usually also points to the future, while the upward illustrates
the trend of growth, and so on. Although these statements and rules sound
commonplace, there are still some possible errors hidden in this detail, which
may be caused by intentional manipulation or unconsciousness. The process of
narration especially in data visualization has to undoubtedly take these details
into account; a good storyteller should draw enough attention to the content
of the data itself as to keep the misunderstanding caused by different read-
ing habits to a minimum, which introduces a strong connection between the
artwork and the story. The connection will provide the audience with a stronger
sense of participation, which also reduces the possibility of other errors.
It is undeniable that there are also questioning voices, which are very
convinced that the traditional narrative
1
can retain the integrity of the story. At
the same time, data visualization can only express the characteristics of data,
but cannot show more content behind it, which is not a good way to describe.
The process of data visualization is not a one-to-one translation transforma-
tion process to display abstracted digital information; this narrative method
is part of the analysis process, in which specific objectives are visualized. The
presentation of the data is closely related to the content of the story to be told
with the data. The form presentation of data is closely related to the content
of the story. Moreover, if the story is presented in all aspects, the audience will
not find the key point and may easily get lost in the details of the story, which
will run counter to our original intention.
Analytics Vidhya content team has mentioned one of the best examples of
data that need to be visualized: the data is about the Quartet of Anscombe,
which is a set of four data sets. The results of these statistics are very simi-
lar and people cannot gain understanding from the chart, but when they are
visualized, the results are completely different.
Figure 1 shows the four data sets used in Anscombe’s Quartet. If you
simply look at the numbers in the chart, you will find that they are roughly the
same. But how would these statistics look after being visualized?
06_TA_17.3_Dong_259-279.indd 260 2/19/20 2:44 PM
Data visualization
www.intellectbooks.com 261
Did you ever think that the gap between these four groups of data visu-
alization would be so big? This example shows that the mode of narrative is
changing and that innovation in narrative methods is making every story vivid
and clear (see Figure 2).
A few years ago, when I first came into contact with data visualization, I
did an experiment with my partners that made me think about how to use
data or how to use new ways of visualization to convey the stories behind data.
In the first project, named ‘Personal Data: Daily Routines’, data were obtained
from records of all our activities as accurately as possible in terms of the type
Figure 1: Quartet of Anscombe. Copyright Analytics Vidhya Content Team.
Figure 2: After data visualization. Copyright by the Analytics Vidhya content team.
06_TA_17.3_Dong_259-279.indd 261 2/19/20 2:44 PM
Xiaoxu Dong
262 Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research
of activity, duration and location. We will analyse the data and represent it
as a 3D installation somewhere using cheap, lo-fi materials. The aim of this
first stage of the project is to experience collection, organization and repre-
sentation of data in a hands-on way. The visualizations should communicate
data clearly, accurately and efficiently to enable the viewer to quickly gain an
understanding of the story.
Based on the above goals, how can a set of boring data become an inter-
esting story presentation? First of all, you need to show the real data recorded
and categorize the things recorded in your daily life, and then represent differ-
ent categories in different colours, such as cyan for sleep time. Pink represents
learning (the learning content recorded in this part is different, and so it will
be marked on display), orange represents meal time, blue stands for exercise
time, yellow is shopping time, green is entertainment time and dark blue is
bath time, then you need to calculate the proportion of each part in compari-
son to the sum total.
Figure 3a: Data on Friday, 12 February Visual Projection, created by Xiaoxu Dong
and Roland Yu.
Figure 3b: Data on Saturday, 13 February Visual Projection, created by Xiaoxu
Dong and Roland Yu.
06_TA_17.3_Dong_259-279.indd 262 2/19/20 2:44 PM
Data visualization
www.intellectbooks.com 263
Then, we utilize behavioural performance to interact with this set of
data to make behaviour performance part of data visualization. Everyone
performs their own data, and their data will be projected on themselves (so
each person’s character silhouette is used in the data presentation). In the
process of display, the behaviour and dialogue of the characters can fully
show the emotions behind the characters. Eventually, the story was told with
a combination of data visualization and behavioural performance. We made
this experiment into a video and uploaded it to YouTube. Although the experi-
ment is very simple, we want to receive more feedback from other people who
are equally concerned about the visual narrative of data. Fortunately, it has
attracted many interested people. Some people who have viewed the videos
have left positive messages, saying that the work has inspired them and that
it is an interesting idea.
Figure 3c: Data on Sunday, 14 February Visual Projection, created by Xiaoxu Dong
and Roland Yu.
Figure 4a: Data on Friday, 12 February in performance by Roland Yu, Xiaoxu
Dong, Lynn and Anna. Data in performance. Photographed by Roland Yu.
06_TA_17.3_Dong_259-279.indd 263 2/19/20 2:44 PM
Xiaoxu Dong
264 Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research
Figure 4b: Data on Saturday, 13 February in performance by Roland Yu, Xiaoxu
Dong, Lynn and Anna. Data in performance. Photographed by Roland Yu.
Figure 4c: Data on Sunday, 14 February in performance by Roland Yu, Xiaoxu
Dong, Lynn and Anna. Data in performance. Photographed by Roland Yu.
As for the use of behavioural performances to produce data visualization,
artist Keith Lam from Hong Kong, China, has to be mentioned. The work is
called Signal Morphor: The Orchestra (Lam 2011), which is a data visualiza-
tion behaviour performance, showing a work about signal and communica-
tion visualization. In the performance, the audience is also a performer, and
the reception and transmission of communication signals are transformed into
lights, music and images, which produce invisible signals. The dancers are
the recipients and senders of the data; they will have reactions to the signal
immediately after receiving the signal. Dancers have sensitive antennae that
respond to signals as soon as they receive them. Each dancer has an umbrella
installed with sensors to receive signals from the audience and send signals
back, which establishes live communication between dancers and the spec-
tators. A dancer can actively make phone calls, surf the Internet or send text
messages; at that time they can also passively receive calls and text messages
from the audience. The received signals will be converted into music and
images to be projected on the screen behind the dancer (see Figures 5a–d).
06_TA_17.3_Dong_259-279.indd 264 2/19/20 2:44 PM
Data visualization
www.intellectbooks.com 265
Figure 5a: Signal Morphor: The Orchestra. The performer is in the performance
with data collection from the screen. Copyright Keith Lam.
Figure 5b: Signal Morphor: The Orchestra. The performer is in the performance
with data from their umbrella. Copyright Keith Lam.
Figure 5c: Signal Morphor: The Orchestra. The performer is in the performance
with data collation from the screen. Copyright Keith Lam.
06_TA_17.3_Dong_259-279.indd 265 2/19/20 2:44 PM
Xiaoxu Dong
266 Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research
The combination of performance and data visualization is a very interesting
narrative method in which one aspect of data visualization can clearly show
the data; on the other hand, behavioural performance can not only supple-
ment the data but also excavate more content behind the story. Therefore,
such a combination compensates for the fact that data visualization may miss
the story and also greatly enriches the form of expression of the works; it leads
to more artistic appreciation and interaction.
In fact, increasingly more new technologies can be developed into new
artistic narrative methods that can be applied to data visualization as well. The
original text form has also changed into the visual form, the sound form, the
dynamic form, the sculpture form and even the behaviour performance.
In fact, increasingly more new technologies can be developed into new
artistic narrative methods that can be applied to data visualization as well.
From 2D data visualization to 3D data visualization, there are increasingly
more ways to display data in real time and interact with audiences.
In the development of data visualization, in addition to the changes of
technology, illustration and narrative methods, the content of the story is
also changing. Since the discovery of the earliest data visualization around
5500
bc, built by arranging stones or pebbles, and later, clay tokens, it is
used to record data, trade and sell (Schmandt-Besserat 1999a). In 500
bc, the earliest participatory visualizations were probably voting systems.
Voting in Greece was introduced in the fifth century
bc. Adult male citizens
were invited to express their opinion by dropping a pebble in an urn: a
white pebble meant ‘yes’ and a black pebble meant ‘no’. It is clear that the
emergence of data visualization in that era aimed to quantify some items
and simplify the difficulty of statistics. With the development of science
and technology, data visualization has been widely used in the field of
Figure 5d: Signal Morphor: The Orchestra. The performer, with data from their
umbrella. Copyright Keith Lamb.
06_TA_17.3_Dong_259-279.indd 266 2/19/20 2:44 PM
Data visualization
www.intellectbooks.com 267
Figure 6: Earliest data visualization. Photographed by Denise Schmandt-Besserat.
Copyright by Denise Schmandt-Besserat.
scientific research, for example Nobel laureate crystallographer Dorothy
Crawford Hodgkin created a physical image in the mid-1940s that showed
the structure of penicillin. Nowadays, in the era of big data, people have
more convenient access to more kinds of data. Instead of confining them-
selves to the type of data, they choose what they are interested in in the
database. Therefore, the content of visual stories in data visualization has
become increasingly more abundant. In 2003, Artist Marilyn Taylor created
an artwork called Time Pieces: Physical Space-Time Cubes that consists of
seven three-dimensional maps (one for each day of the week), where the
Z-axis represents time and copper wires show how she travels through the
city during the day. On the Birmingham Made Me Design Expo, Dorota
Grabkowska and Kuba Kolec created an interactive public installation. This
project is based on the concept of data visualization, and produces large-
scale and complex data maps by viewers themselves. The aim of the project
is to explore the shape of the Birmingham people by asking the Birmingham
people the following five simple questions:
1. What made you think?
2. What made you create?
3. What made you angry?
4. What made you happy?
5. What made you change?
Visitors can visualize concepts associated with feelings, inspirations, ideas
and influences by selecting colour lines that correspond to feelings, inspira-
tions, ideas or influences and linking these lines to words on the wall. The
project has won the Most Original Exhibit Award at the Birmingham Made
Me Design Awards 2012 (see Figures 6, 7a–b, 8, 9 and 10a–e).
06_TA_17.3_Dong_259-279.indd 267 2/19/20 2:44 PM
Xiaoxu Dong
268 Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research
Figure 7a: Voting with psephoi (pebbles) in a scene from the Wine Cup With the
Suicide of Ajax (detail), about 490
bc, attributed to the Brygos Painter. Red-figured
kylix made in Athens. Terracotta, 4 7/16 in. high x 12 3/8 in. diam. The J. Paul Getty
Museum, 86.AE.286.
Figure 7b: The ancient Greeks held one of the earliest public votes in history when
the Persians threatened their democratic system. Copyright by YouTube channel
HISTORY.
CASE STUDIES OF NARRATIVE VISUALIZATION
AQhelminthes
This is an assignment for the cyberception course. When the student is think-
ing about this project, his or her first inspiration is to find something closely
related to society, people and the environment to do experiments, so as to
change his or her perception of something.
The topic eventually chosen was AQI, which according to the students
reflected the rising general awareness of environmental issues today..
Although low air quality has been detrimental to our health, it took us a long
time to realize that. The belated attention to this issue created an especially
urgent need to address problems related to air quality.
Instead of enlisting AQI data as a set of numbers and figures that do not
emotionally engage the audience, my students’ work was able to paint a vivid
picture of the threat that bad air quality had posed on us through data visuali-
zation. They created a virtual creature. The air quality is reflected by the virtual
creature’s living condition. Its life span is programmed to be much shorter
than that of humans and it is more sensitive to air pollution conditions; thus
06_TA_17.3_Dong_259-279.indd 268 2/19/20 2:44 PM
Data visualization
www.intellectbooks.com 269
the audience receives feedback through the creature’s status and emotion
connections can be established between it and humans (see Figure 11).
Throughout his narrative process, the source of the data is the National
Meteorological Administration’s API. He converts all the data into the
virtual creature’s living condition (health condition). The virtual creature’s
form is inspired by the dynamic form in Artist Golan Levin’s Yellowtail (see
Figure 12). Yellowtail (Levin 1998) is an interactive software system for the
Figure 8: Structure of penicillin. Copyright: Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin.
Figure 9: Time Pieces: Physical Space-Time Cubes. Created by Marilynn Taylor.
06_TA_17.3_Dong_259-279.indd 269 2/19/20 2:44 PM
Xiaoxu Dong
270 Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research
Figure 10a: WHAT MADE ME interactive public installation.
Designed by Dorota Grabkowska and Kuba Kolec for
the Birmingham Made Me Design Expo (15–22 June 2012) at the
Mailbox, Birmingham. Copyright Dorota Grabkowska and Kuba Kolec.
Figure 10b: WHAT MADE
ME interactive questions
and tools.
Figure 10c: WHAT MADE ME installation
details.
Figure 10d: WHAT MADE ME interactive outcomes.
Figure 10e: The audience interacting with the installation.
06_TA_17.3_Dong_259-279.indd 270 2/19/20 2:44 PM
Data visualization
www.intellectbooks.com 271
gestural creation and performance of real-time abstract animation. Yellowtail
repeats a user’s strokes end-over-end, enabling simultaneous specification
of a line’s shape and quality of movement. Each line repeats according to
its own period, producing an ever-changing and responsive display of lively,
worm-like textures.
In this story about air quality, the data correspond to the virtual creature’s
movement speed, life cycle, environment colour tone and the colour of the
creature itself. The background colour is the same as the colour pointed by the
pointer. The colour, size and creep strength are all affected by the index. This
work changes people’s perception about the air pollution in time dimension. It
converts a long-term problem into fifteen minutes of visual images.
This is an example of telling a meteorological story with the help of data
visualization. In this project the student tells a story of the air quality through
the living conditions of a virtual creature. The narrative method is relatively
quite clear and integrated. The ‘new life’ created in this project becomes a new
communication system. It has successfully presented the data, changed the
perception of the audience and enhanced their experience.
Channel
Channel tells a story with data visualization in which a human enters a huge
plant network and establishes an intimate connection with the plants (see
Figures 13a–c). As we all know, the human body is an elaborate system;
the huge society that humans live in is also an enormous, complex network
system. Looking at an individual, we will find that there is a circulatory system
composed of a large complicated network, transporting materials inside a
human body. If we look at humans from a societal perspective, we will find
the Internet connecting individuals with the whole society and social rela-
tionship networks that keep humans connected to each other. In fact, there is
also a network among plants. The Wood-wide Web is a mycorrhizal network.
Mycorrhizal networks are underground hyphal networks created by mycor-
rhizal fungi that connect individual plants together and transfer water, carbon,
nitrogen and other nutrients and minerals.
The aim of this project is to raise a discussion about how the relationship
between human beings and plants will change as our technology develops and
the identities of human beings and plants in this network. Just like in the film
Avatar, in which people could communicate with the plants through the hairs
and roots, we want to show the communication of the audience with the plants.
As the name ‘channel’ suggests, the project contains multiple channels
that the audience can choose from. When creating the project, the interaction
interface was designed as a frequency modulation knob and a human heart-
beat sensor was used to detect a plant’s ‘heartbeat’ signal. We found during the
experiment that the signals would change when humans touched the plants.
The four plants acted as four interfaces through which we could enter the
network of plants which are interconnected with each other.
The deep connection between the human and plant, real albeit invisible, was
visualized and rendered tangible. The four real plants correspond to four virtual
plants on the screen, and the forms of the virtual plants are artistically stylized.
The connection between the two systems will be shown when the audience
touches the plants. Through this project, the audience can not only enter into
the plant’s network and ‘communicate’ with the plants, but they can also explore
their communication status by the visualized graphics on the screen.
06_TA_17.3_Dong_259-279.indd 271 2/19/20 2:44 PM
Xiaoxu Dong
272 Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research
Figures 11a–d: Air quality index. Copyright: The World Air Quality Index Project Team.
06_TA_17.3_Dong_259-279.indd 272 2/19/20 2:44 PM
Data visualization
www.intellectbooks.com 273
Figures 11a–d: Continued.
06_TA_17.3_Dong_259-279.indd 273 2/19/20 2:44 PM
Xiaoxu Dong
274 Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research
Attention
Attention is a student work that has won the second prize in a competition
held by Tongji University. The work captures the brainwaves when human
beings pay attention to the form of electronic signals and display them on
a screen for direct visual mapping (see Figures 14a–b and 15a–b). Compared
to the previous cases where data was still somewhat taken from the external
world, these students managed to extract data from something as abstract and
latent as human attention and consciousness.
René Descartes in his famous dualism theory mentioned that the universe
contains two radically different kinds of substances – the mind or soul,
defined as thinking. Humans can recognize their own physical form from
their reflection in the mirrors. In this project, Attention visualized humans’
thinking process by technological methods. A visualized mapping from
electroencephalogram (EEG) provides a chance to recognize and access the
‘soul’ part of one self; through this ‘mirror’ we can see our own ‘conscious-
ness’. Conventional mirrors reflect the physical body and this ‘mirror’ reflects
human consciousness. Then a question arises: what is the true core identity
of a human being in the post-human society: is it the consciousness or the
physical entity in the mirror?
In this project, EEG is used to collect human brain bioelectrical signals,
the beta brainwave. According to scientific research, beta brainwaves repre-
sent humans’ attention status, and it is a simple and controllable psycho-
logical activity. Then the beta wave is extracted by the sensor, processed and
manipulated into visualized particle forms by utilizing certain mathematical
techniques. The experiencer’s attention is thus visualized as a particle system.
The contraction and expansion of the particle system reflects the focus of
one’s attention; the audience can adjust the colour style of the particle system
through the interface.
The motivation and concept of this project are both intriguing and thor-
ough. Intangible data are collected, analysed, processed and displayed in real
time, enabling a human being’s attention to be quantified in the blink of an
eye. The audience will ask themselves questions tinted by the story while
they experience the story. What is the true core identity of a human being in
the post-human society: is it the consciousness or the physical entity in the
mirror?
Figure 12: Yellowtail. Designed by Golan Levin.
06_TA_17.3_Dong_259-279.indd 274 2/19/20 2:44 PM
Data visualization
www.intellectbooks.com 275
Figure 13a: Interface. Created by Bill Zhou and Odelie Liu. Copyright: Bill Zhou,
Bobby Xu, Lou and Odelie Liu.
Figure 13b: When viewers touch different plants, the interface shows different
communication situations. Created by Bill Zhou and Odelie Liu. Copyright: Bill
Zhou, Bobby Xu, Lou and Odelie Liu.
Figure 13c: When Kinect catches humans approaching.
06_TA_17.3_Dong_259-279.indd 275 2/19/20 2:44 PM
Xiaoxu Dong
276 Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research
CONCLUSION
In this article, we compared a conventional narrative and a data story narra-
tive. Compared to traditional narratives methods, data storytelling appeals to
our senses and emotions in a much more powerful and engaging way. With
the development of science and technology, narrative methods and presenta-
tion methods have all changed considerably.
With the assistance of these technologically enhanced storytelling
methods, artists have injected vitality into data and made them vivid tales.
Moreover, the growing range of data has also given artists much more free-
dom in choosing their subject matter. Besides texts, artists are also able to
visualize tabulated data, as well as many other types of ‘invisible’ data.
We illustrated two examples of narratives combining data visualization and
performances. Similar bold experiments have always given people many inspi-
rations and afflatus. These narratives are not merely showing the data but are of
higher artistic merit and stronger interactivity. Three more examples come from
Figures 14a–b: When the audience interacts, the interface data changes as the
audience’s attention changes. Designed by Hill Jiang. Copyright Hill Jiang, Tony
Ding and Lou.
06_TA_17.3_Dong_259-279.indd 276 2/19/20 2:44 PM
Data visualization
www.intellectbooks.com 277
undergraduate students’ work from the Roy Ascott studio. As undergraduate
students, they have not only used data visualization as a narrative method but
have also focused on intriguing topics in their stories, ranging from meteorol-
ogy, plant network, to human attention. Each project told a unique and fascinat-
ing story about data, which would otherwise be dry and un intelligible.
REFERENCES
Analytics Vidhya Content Team (2017), ‘The art of story telling in data
science and how to create data stories?’, Analytics Vidhya, 18 October,
https://www.analyticsvidhya.com/blog/2017/10/art-story-telling-data-
science/?utm_source=11stepsBItoDSarticle&utm_medium=blog.
Accessed 5 May 2019.
Cukier, Kenneth (2010), ‘Show me: New ways of visualising data’, The Economist,
27 February, https://www.economist.com/special-report/2010/02/27/show-
me. Accessed 10 June 2018.
Figures 15a–b: The effect of particles on the interface increases with concentration.
Designed by Hill Jiang. Copyright Hill Jiang, Tony Ding and Lou.
06_TA_17.3_Dong_259-279.indd 277 2/19/20 2:44 PM
Xiaoxu Dong
278 Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research
Dragicevic, Pierre (2013), ‘2003: Time Pieces: Physical Space-Time Cubes – List
of physical visualizations and related artifacts’, Data Phys, 25 July, http://
dataphys.org/list/physical-space-time-cubes/. Accessed 15 May 2019.
Grabkowska, Dorota (2012), WHAT MADE ME, interactive public installation,
Behance, 15–22 June, https://www.behance.net/gallery/4419469/WHAT-
MADE-ME-Interactive-Public-Installation. Accessed 15 May 2019.
The History Channel (2012), ‘Mankind the story of all of us: Birth of demo-
cracy’, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IndRAsYX4W4.
Accessed 13 May 2019.
Lam, Keith (2011), Signal Morphor: The orchestra’, Keithlyk, http://keithlyk.
net/portfolio/signal-morphor-orchestra/. Accessed 8 August 2017.
Levin, Golan (1998), ‘Yellowtail’, Flong, January, http://www.flong.com/
projects/yellowtail/. Accessed 10 March 2019.
Michael, Lachlan and Cranswicka, David (2008), ‘Busting out of crystallography’s
Sisyphean prison: From pencil and paper to structure solving at the
press of a button: Past, present and future of crystallographic software
development, maintenance and distribution’, Acta Crystallographica
Section A: Foundations and Advances, 64:1, http://journals.iucr.org/a/
issues/2008/01/00/sc5015/index.html. Accessed 15 May 2019.
Oxford Museum of the History of Science (n.d.), ‘Model of the structure of
penicillin, by Dorothy Hodgkin, Oxford, c. 1945’, http://www.mhs.ox.ac.
uk/collections/search/displayrecord/?mode=displaymixed&module=ecatal
ogue&invnumber=17631&irn=7316&query=. Accessed 15 May 2019.
Schmandt-Besserat, Denise (1999), ‘Tokens: The cognitive significance’,
Documenta Praehistorica, 26:26, pp. 21–27.
Simard, Susan W. (2012), ‘Mycorrhizal networks: Mechanisms, ecology and
modeling’, Fungal Biology Reviews, 26, pp. 29–58.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2008), ‘René Descartes’, Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press.
Stephan, Annelisa (2012a), ‘Voting with the ancient Greeks’, The Iris, 6
November, http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/voting-with-the-ancient-greeks/.
Accessed 13 May 2019.
—— (2012b), ‘Voting with the ancient Greeks’, The Iris, 6 November, http://
blogs.getty.edu/iris/voting-with-the-ancient-greeks/. Accessed 13 May
2019.
Taylor, Marilynn (2013), Time Pieces: Physical Space-Time Cubes, 2013’,
Data Phys, 25 July, http://dataphys.org/list/physical-space-time-cubes/.
Accessed 15 May 2019.
The World Air Quality Index Project (2016), ‘Beijing’, Real-time Air Quality
Index (AQI), http://aqicn.org/city/beijing/. Accessed 12 March 2016.
—— (2016), ‘Guangzhou’, Real-time Air Quality Index (AQI), http://aqicn.org/
city/guangzhou/. Accessed 12 March 2016.
—— (2016), ‘Nanjing’, Real-time Air Quality Index (AQI), http://aqicn.org/
city/nanjing/. Accessed 12 March 2016.
—— (2016), ‘Shanghai’, Real-time Air Quality Index (AQI), http://aqicn.org/
city/shanghai/. Accessed 12 March 2016.
SUGGESTED CITATION
Dong, Xiaoxu (2019), ‘Data visualization: A unique storyteller’, Technoetic
Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research, 17:3, pp. 259–79, doi: https://doi.
org/10.1386/tear_00020_1
06_TA_17.3_Dong_259-279.indd 278 2/19/20 2:44 PM
Data visualization
www.intellectbooks.com 279
CONTRIBUTOR DETAILS
Xiaoxu Dong is an artist and a graphic interaction designer. She was born in
China and studied product design, communication design and arts in China
and the UK. She is currently a lecturer in the technoetic arts BA at DeTao and
the Roy Ascott Technoetic Arts Studio for the Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts.
Her research and art practice lies in the space between art, design and data
visualization. She works across the discipline of art with a research-driven
approach. She is involved in planning, developing and teaching classes, and in
presenting the studio’s student work internationally.
Contact: Roy Ascott Technoetic Arts Studio, DeTao Shanghai Center (at SIVA),
2200 Wenxiang Rd, Songjiang District, Shanghai, 201620 China.
E-mail: dongxiaoxu@hotmail.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4960-5778
Xiaoxu Dong has asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work in the format that
was submitted to Intellect Ltd.
06_TA_17.3_Dong_259-279.indd 279 2/19/20 2:44 PM
Intellect Booksintellectbooks
To order this book online visit our website: www.intellectbooks.com
@IntellectBooks@IntellectBooks
Giuseppe Pagano
Design for Social Change in Fascist Italy
By Flavia Marcello
Giuseppe Pagano-Pogatschnig (1896–1945) was a twentieth-century
polymath operating at the intersection between architecture, media,
design and the arts. He was an exhibition and furniture designer, curator,
photographer, editor, writer and architect. A dedicated fascist turned
resistance ghter, he was active in Italy’s most dramatic social and
political era.
This book provides a comprehensive overview of an inuential architect
and his contribution to the development of modern architecture.
Itfollows his life with in-depth contributions about aspects of Pagano’s
cultural production, concluding in writings by Pagano himself and a
critical bibliography to aid scholars in furtherstudy.
ISBN 978-1-78938-100-9
350 pp | £40, $56
Paperback | Fall 2019
220 x 220 mm
E-book available
06_TA_17.3_Dong_259-279.indd 280 2/19/20 2:44 PM
CopyrightofTechnoeticArts:AJournalofSpeculativeResearchisthepropertyofIntellect
Ltd.anditscontentmaynotbecopiedoremailedtomultiplesitesorpostedtoalistserv
withoutthecopyrightholder'sexpresswrittenpermission.However,usersmayprint,
download,oremailarticlesforindividualuse.